The Watauga Virtual Academy (WVA) was created to allow students to attend online-only education as a response to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, many people aren’t aware that the WVA is in session again this year, and there are students entering their second year of this program. Students who are currently in the WVA and students who were enrolled last year have experienced a variety of adjustments.
The WVA, unlike last year, has moved entirely asynchronous. Gone are the days when students met regularly with their teachers via Google Meet. WVA student and sophomore, Raj Titus, stated, “There's no more required Google meets anymore so we just do the work when we want. It’s all asynchronous.”
The asynchronous instruction is given through video lectures and links to online sources only. While some students may learn well through this form of self-guided instruction, other students expressed concerns about how tough it is to learn entirely on their own.
Titus states, “I think it's harder to learn without teachers. We get mostly the same information but it's much harder to learn.”
Junior WVA student Ava Cutlip further explained, “Teachers give instruction through video lectures, articles, and example questions/problems that we can listen to and interact with every day. We also have quizzes, tests, and homework each day to keep us focused.”
While the videos are meant to be engaging, it seems to be a common theme that students enrolled in WVA don’t feel they are really learning the material.
Previous WVA student, sophomore, Maggie Skene, elaborated on this, “I don’t feel as if I got a great understanding of what I was supposed to learn when I did WVA, especially compared to students who went in person. I can already tell that it is affecting me in some of my classes, so I’m having to work harder to understand concepts because I never got a great understanding of them to begin with.”
This puts students behind the curve because they have to go back and try to learn concepts that students at WHS learned in person last year.
In addition to struggles with asynchronous learning, students also shared different experiences regarding how much access they really have to ask questions or speak to their teachers.
Students have differing opinions regarding how easy it is to talk to teachers.
Cutlip stated, “Teachers are very accessible, and if I ever need anything, I can set up a Google Meet with teachers.”
But some students feel it is harder than it was last year to communicate with teachers. Titus stated, “We don't have much interaction with teachers anymore so it's a bit harder”
While some students are grateful for the opportunities that WVA provides by allowing them to learn from home, others are concerned that it is not providing the same level of education a student receives in person at WHS. This program allows students who have to be home to receive an education, but some students may fall behind because they are not receiving what they need to really learn the material.
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